


A Long Ride

by INMH



Series: after the evacuation (pacifist ending) [26]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Car-jacking, Drama, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Kidnapping, Strong Language, Suspense, Theft, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-03 11:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16325720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/INMH/pseuds/INMH
Summary: Kara and Alice have a rough night.





	A Long Ride

_Click._  
  
“Don’t move.”  
  
Kara froze.  
  
She could faintly see his reflection in the car window: Dark hair, sickly, and his hand shaking as he pointed the gun at the back of her head. In the backseat of the car, Alice stared at them both with wide eyes.  
  
[ _Look away!_ ]  
  
Kara didn’t want the stranger to realize Alice had seen his face.  
  
“Don’t move. Unlock the car.”  
  
“Please-”  
  
“Just _do it_ , and we won’t have a problem.”  
  
Kara did as instructed, heart pulsing with regret: This wasn’t her car, it was Rose’s. She and Alice were out doing an evening grocery-run, and they’d taken Rose’s car to haul the fertilizer and other goods. It was a good thing Luther wasn’t with them; humans with guns made him nervous, and there was a good chance he would have charged the guy and tried to fight him.  
  
“Get in- Passenger’s side.”  
  
Kara obeyed.  
  
[ _Don’t move. Don’t speak._ ]  
  
She saw Alice nod subtly in the rearview mirror. The man climbed into the driver’s seat, yanking the key from Kara’s hand and shoving it into the ignition. He tapped a few commands into the auto-pilot instructions with his free hand, and the car took off onto the dark street.  
  
The man glanced between the road and Kara, careful to keep the gun trained on her even as his hand shook. “I’m sorry about this,” He muttered, wiping his nose with the other hand. “Don’t mean to be a nuisance, but it had to be done. I’m runnin’ low on-” He choked, croaked, glanced over his shoulder in the _least_ subtle way at Alice. “-uh, uh… My medication. I’m low on my medication. Need to go get some before I withdraw worse, then I’ll be _real_ bad.”  
  
“It’s fine,” Kara said calmly, employing the same voice she’d used in the squat with Ralph over that incredibly tense ‘breakfast’ they’d all had together. “We don’t want any trouble. I just want to take my daughter home.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah, I just need to get where I’m going,” The man repeated, sniffling again. Kara knew respiratory and sinus problems were a chronic issue for Red Ice addicts- any drug that could be snorted or inhaled would have such an effect, but Red Ice in particular had produced citizens with ruined throats and noses in near epidemic proportions. In the winter they were prone to nosebleeds and coughing up blood from how raw and beaten the delicate skin was. “Just gotta get there, and you can have your car back.”  
  
“Thank you.”  
  
“No problem, I’m sorry, gotta get my stuff. Just gotta get my stuff.”  
  
He was quiet for a while, and Kara eyed him carefully to see if she could detect any weaknesses to exploit. She would like to believe that he intended to let them go as promised- he was obviously a severe addict desperate for a fix, driven to extremes to get it- but she could hardly dismiss the possibility that he would change his mind once they’d reached their destination, and she and Alice hadn’t survived what they had just to die at the hand of a Red Ice junkie.  
  
“How far away is it?” She asked quietly.  
  
“Not far. Not far at all.” He wiped his nose again. “Sorry. Sorry to inconvenience you. I need this stuff, I need it or I go nuts.” Kara swallowed a very _good_ retort to that, self-preservation first and foremost in her mind. “Didn’t need it before, when I was working. It was only after I got shit-canned that I had to start taking the stuff. Unemployment will drive ya nuts, and I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for goddamn Cyberlife and their goddamn androids. Can you believe it? They steal our jobs and then they suddenly decide that shit’s not _good enough_ for them, now they want to be treated like people too. Can you stand it? _Fuckin’_ androids.”  
  
Kara was silent. She looked in the rearview mirror at Alice, who stared back at her in mute horror. This really was their luck, wasn’t it? They’d survived a violent Red Ice addict who’d lost his job to androids, and now they were trapped in a car with one. Kara was fortunate to have changed her hair to black in Canada, changing the length so it fell down her back, and therefore did not look like a typical AX400. Alice looked a lot like a typical YK500, but Kara found that few people actually recognized them in the wild if they happened to run across them.  
  
No, Kara and Alice were not the luckiest androids in the world.  
  
“What about you? You got work?”  
  
Kara swallowed. “Looking for it, at the moment.”  
  
The man shook his head darkly, glanced back at Alice. “That’s too bad. Too bad.” She knew what he was thinking: _Poor girl, young mother with a kid and she can’t find work? Too bad, too bad._ That was good- the more he empathized with her, the better the likelihood that they would get away from this unscathed.  
  
Just as long as he didn’t realize they were androids.  
  
It occurred to Kara that they were coming to a turn-off that would bring them past Rose’s house. An idea began to formulate: If he took the upcoming left and brought them near Rose’s house, then maybe she and Alice would have a chance for escape. The man’s guard was lowering, assuming that Kara was just a human woman with a young daughter. But Kara was an android, and this was a modern car- it would take effort, but maybe she could hack the car’s system and force it to stop moving? If she could, the man would be confused for a moment, distracted- and Kara could either disarm him, or escape with Alice. Disarming sounded like the better idea: She was stronger than him, and she couldn’t dismiss the possibility that he would panic and start shooting.  
  
Then they could run back to the house, barricade themselves inside, and call the police.  
  
Kara waited with bated breath as they approached the turn.  
  
_Please, please, please-_  
  
The car turned onto the road, and a wild mix of relief and anxiety rose in her. Kara glanced at Alice in the rearview mirror.  
  
[ _Get ready. We’re going past Rose’s house. We’re gonna run._ ]  
  
Alice nodded, a slight movement that did not attract their abductor’s attention. Kara waited tensely as the car slid down the road, growing closer and closer to Rose’s house. Silently, she remotely connected with the car’s system and started figuring out where everything was; then she waited, waited, waited for the right moment- and it came, almost half a mile from Rose’s house. Kara disabled what she could and, to her satisfaction, the car started to slow down.  
  
[ _Get ready._ ]  
  
The man didn’t notice at first. Self-driving cars would often slow or speed up of their own accord in certain places, especially on rainy nights like these when the pavement was wet and prone to slippage. When the car had slowed to fifteen miles, though, he finally narrowed his eyes and looked to the controls. “The hell?” He tapped the control panel.  
  
Kara eyed the speedometer: **10 MPH.**  
  
Not safe enough to jump out yet.  
  
“What the hell is wrong with this car?”  
  
**5 MPH.**  
  
Kara feigned surprise. “I don’t know,” She said. “It must be-”  
  
[ ** _NOW._** ]  
  
Kara’s hand shot out, and she smashed the man’s head against the control panel. In the back seat, Alice jumped out of the car. “Run!” Kara screamed. “Get to Rose! I’m coming!” Alice took off running, and Kara tried to wrench the gun from the kidnapper’s hands- but evidently she hadn’t bashed his head hard enough, because his grip on the gun tightened and he fought her sloppily. Kara grappled with him, trying to keep the muzzle pointed away from her body. She reached back with her free hand and unlocked the door, pushing it open; she kicked the man in the chest, knocking him backwards and loosening his hold on the gun, which Kara yanked from his hand.  
  
She took off running for the house, hearing Alice screaming up ahead for Rose, Adam, Luther, _anyone._  
  
She heard angry bellowing from behind her, curses and threats and everything in-between, and Kara was grateful that she’d made a point of stealing the gun before taking off. Even as messed up and sick as he was, he was angry enough that he probably would have just sprayed bullets indiscriminately and Kara’s luck with dodging bullets had to run out eventually, didn’t it? Kara got to the front door, yanked it open, and very nearly ran face-first into Adam.  
  
“What happened, what happened?” He asked urgently.  
  
“A man carjacked us, he’s outside and I took his gun, lock the doors!” Adam raced to the back door as Kara locked the front. Alice was standing in the living room, looking terrified. “Alice, go upstairs to your room right now and lock the door behind you!” Alice, thankfully, did as instructed without question. “Where’s Rose?” She asked Adam.  
  
“She’s at the neighbors, but Luther-”  
  
**_BANGBANGBANG._**  
  
“ _Get the fuck out here you fucking bitch!_ ” Came a furious roar from outside. “ _Give me my gun!_ ”  
  
“Call the police!” Kara hissed to Adam, who ran for the phone. She raised her voice and said, “Go away! The police are coming and you don’t want to be here when they get here!” That kicked off another torrent of cursing, which faded away progressively. Kara warily hoped that he had taken off to avoid being arrested.  
  
**_CRASH._**  
  
The window next to the door shattered as a rock came plowing through it; Kara recognized it as one of the decorative ones Rose kept at the base of the front porch. Broken glass clung to the corners of the frame, but it didn’t stop their assailant from trying to climb through. Kara quickly fumbled with the gun, taking the safety off and aiming at the wall next to the window.  
  
**_BANG._**  
  
“ _Jesus!_ ” He hadn’t been hit, but he’d been startled enough to fall backwards out of the window.  
  
Kara raised the gun again. “Next time I’ll be aiming for you!”  
  
“Damn it, you crazy-!”  
  
Abruptly, the man was cut off. Kara frowned as she heard vague sounds that resembled gagging and choking; was he having a heart-attack? He was in withdrawal from Red Ice and had just gone through tremendous stress, maybe it had triggered something. Kara crept towards the window, gun still up.  
  
When she saw him, her shoulders sagged with relief.  
  
Luther was standing over the assailant, lowering him to the ground. His arm had been curled around the man’s throat, choking him into submission. A quick scan revealed that he was still very much alive. “Are you alright?” Luther asked.  
  
Kara nodded, lowering the gun and shutting her eyes with relief. “Yes.” She unlocked the door, letting Luther inside. He immediately engulfed her in a hug, lifting her off the ground and squeezing her tightly. She kissed his cheek and pressed her face into his shoulder, trying to calm down.  
  
“Is Alice alright?”  
  
“Yeah, she’s upstairs, I sent her up when we came in- Where did you come from?”  
  
“I was gonna tell you,” Adam said, coming over from the kitchen. “Mom’s at a neighbor’s, but Luther was hauling soil bags out of the cellar.”  
  
“Thank God for that.”  
  
Sirens began to sound from outside; Kara thought about calling Alice down, but didn’t want her anywhere near that man until he was safely in the back of a police car. In the meantime, she sent her a message- [ _We’re safe. Stay where you are for now._ ]- and leaned against Luther as the patrol cars pulled into the driveway.  
  
Today, they were not as unlucky as they could have been.  
   
-End


End file.
